Nature and Culture in the Rituals, Narratives and Beliefs

Plenary speakers

 Submission

 Programme

 Abstracts

 Workshop 1

 Workshop 2

 Videos

International Conference,
September 18 – 22, 2022
Tartu, Estonia



Center of Exellence in Estonian Studies
Department of Folkloristics Estonian Literary Museum
Estonian Academy of Sciences

Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum
Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

International Society of Balcan and Baltic Studies

Photo gallery


  • Papers
  • Information
  • Contacts
  • Credits
  • Plenary speakers
  • Programme

    • The conference presentations in video format are on the following page:
      Videos



      Dear colleagues,

      Once again we would like to thank you for presenting your research results at the 'Nature and Culture in Narratives and Notions of Pandemics' conference. We would like to invite you to publish your papers in the Yearbook of Balkan and Baltic Studies, or Folklore: EJF. Please find attached our guidelines.

      We would kindly like to ask you to confirm your intention for submission no later than November 1, 2022 and to send your papers no later than January 10, 2023.

      Please do not hesitate to write to us, if any additional questions appear.

      Kind regards,
      Nature and Culture 2022 Organization Committee

      Guidelines About submission of papers to YBBS
      For Folklore: EJF use the e-mail folklore@folklore.ee with the subject Nature and Culture Guidelinee www.folklore.ee/folklore submission

    • About the conference
    • The 5th edition of the international conference ‘Balkan and Baltic States in United Europe: History, Religion, and Culture V’ to be held in Tartu, Estonia on September 18–22, 2022. This time we are happy to announce that the general topic of the conference will be ‘Nature and Culture in the Rituals, Narratives and Beliefs’ .

      This theme makes us speculate on the binary opposition of Nature/Culture (formulated by Claude Lévi-Strauss) as it is seen in traditional and modern societies. This opposition finds multiple implementations in many folklore genres, in the beliefs and customs of the calendric and family life cycles, in folk religion practices, in language etc. However, Nature and Culture are not always opposed; they interrelate and complement each other.

      In post-modern society due to the increasingly acute challenges of climate change, and correspondingly the cultural attitudes towards nature, actions and debates related to development and sustainability stand at the center of European and world-wide rhetoric. Relatively newly emerged research areas are aimed at a different, non-anthropocentric investigation of the world – more-than-human geography, multispecies ethnography, archeology of fullness, etc., based on the posthuman vision of the world (J. Igoe, W. Dressler, E. Kohn, E. Marris, B. Büscher and R. Fletcher, S. Toncheva and others). The study of Nature/Culture dichotomy became a broad interdisciplinary field – where humanities and social sciences cooperate with Earth and environmental sciences, economics, health and food security etc.

    • Paper topics:
    • The conference is targeted at scholars and researchers from diverse disciplines and backgrounds interested in presenting their research related to the general topic of the conference. Recent PhDs and other young researchers are also encouraged to participate. The themes of the presentations may vary, without being limited to:

      • The Balkan-Baltic region in the context of the nature/culture dichotomy: local and traditional ecological knowledge, environmental movements, European mechanisms for nature conservation
      • Economics/political economy and ‘human–nature’ coexistence
      • Traditional beliefs and practices and nature/culture correlation
      • Nature and culture in religion, festive rituals and everyday life
      • Paganism and neo-paganism: culture or/and nature?
      • COVID 19 – the revenge of nature?
      • Arts and Nature
      • Climate, ecology and climate change in public and individual discourse.

      Meanwhile, our fifth conference marks fourteen years of our meetings and discussions on the Balkans and the Baltic region in the United Europe. We, therefore, ask the questions: What has changed in the Balkan-Baltic region during that period? How is history interpreted and re-written? What is the situation with ethnic and religious communities? What new problems and topics emerge in the Balkan-Baltic (and European and World) Research Area?

    • Abstracts of presentations:

    • Read or download abstracts (.pdf)

      • Languages:

      • The working languages of the conference are English. We intend to publish the conference papers (after editing and peer review) in a special publication of our journal ‘The Yearbook of Balkan and Baltic Studies’, indexed by SCOPUS (https://www.folklore.ee/balkan_baltic_yearbook/YBBS).

      • Important information

      • Venue: The conference will be held at the Estonian Literary Museum (please see the map below), Vanemuise 42, Tartu, Estonia. Travel and accommodation costs must be covered by the participants. More details about transport and accommodation will be announced. We hope that the pandemic situation will allow the conference to take place in situ, but there is also the possibility of an online and/or hybrid format.
        Further information concerning registration, the conference activities and publication plans will be provided in Circulars.
        The organisers will seek funding to enable a reduction of the fee.

        The location of the Estonian Literary Museum on interactive map:


      • Contacts

      • ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
        Mare Kõiva, Ekaterina Anastasova, Svetoslava Toncheva, Anastasiya Fiadotava (heads)
        Sergei Troitskii, Maris Kuperjanov (secretaries)
        Evgenia Troeva-Grigorova, Piret Voolaid, Milena Lubenova, Tõnno Jonuks, and Reet Hiiemäe

        Mail to:
        Organising Committee, bbs5@folklore.ee

      • Credits

      • The conference is supported by the supported by the Center of Exellence in Estonian Studies, Department of Folkloristics Estonian Literary Museum, Estonian Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the International Society of Balcan and Baltic Studies.



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